Monthly Archives: January 2012

Yesterday, I went to the Atlanta Underground Market with Laura, her friend Felix, Heather and her husband Kirk. The Atlanta Underground Market is a monthly event where 30-40 different vendors, mostly home cooks and small businesses, sell their goods to people that otherwise might not get the chance to try them. The location is revealed in an email the day before the event. The entrance fee is $5 and the dishes are anywhere from $1-$5 each and are of various sizes.

Even though this event is somewhat secretive, a lot of people seem to be in the know and there was a line around the building to get in.

Fortunately, it moved fast once people were let inside. I’d been to the Underground Market once before, but this time was different because this month they focused on brunch foods. Now, truth be told, I’m not the biggest brunch fan. Don’t get me wrong; I like it just fine, but it’s not my favorite meal of the day. That said, I was still excited to try some new foods. And new foods I did try!

First were some gluten-free pancakes from Dr. Sweets Cake Emporium. Laura and I split an order of two and tried both the apple-jalapeno jelly and the raspberry lime jelly.

Next was a Bloody Maria mini cupcake from S’more cupcakes. Sounds kind of weird, but tasted delicious. It was savory, despite looking like it’d be sweet.

After the savory cupcake, it was time for another sweet treat, this time in the form of a Strawberry Margarita cookie from Cookie Underground. These cookies actually contain vegetables (this one was Lime Beet thin with Tequila Strawberry Cream rolled in Turbinado Sugar, to be exact). You would never know it though, because they were delicious.

After stopping at a few tables, we wandered around some to see our options. Last month was the first time I went to the Atlanta Underground Market and I didn’t have a strategy. I ended up buying the first five or so things that I saw and got too full to try some other things. This time, I knew that I needed to conserve my hunger until I figured out all my options.

Here’s an option that I didn’t try…

…it’s what you think it is.

We decided to wait in line for the most popular item in the market – arepas from Arepa Mia. Last month, I opted to not wait in the very long line for an arepa, but after hearing everyone rave about them, I decided that it was time to try them. We waited in line for at least half an hour before making our way to the front.

I was sort of worried that they might run out of the vegetarian arepas, but fortunately, they did not.

After that, we were tired and full and we parted our separate ways. My separate way included to my bed, where I spent the next two hours in a food coma. Well worth it though!

Eight miles is my favorite distance to run. That is, provided I’m in decent enough shape that I can run it. It’s long enough that I feel pretty accomplished but short enough that I don’t need to spend the rest of the day with my feet propped up on the couch. (Need being the operative word, I probably still do lie on the couch after running any distance.)

Eight miles was on my training plan for this weekend. Even though I usually enjoy the distance, the thought of running it by my house was less than thrilling. I have some loops that I run, but they’re all on main roads and they’re not pretty and people always seem to want to honk their damn horn at the runner on the sidewalk. In other words, not the best running environment.

Instead of dealing with all that, I decided to go to the Silver Comet Trail instead. The Silver Comet Trail is about 40 minutes away. It’s far enough that I have to really decide that I’m going there, it can’t be a spur of the moment thing. The weather was really nice on Saturday though, so I made the decision to drive there.

First, I had to pick up some pants that I had altered. My plan was to also stop at REI to pick up some Gu but it was out of the way, so I hoped that I would be okay with out it. It took a while to get there because I went a weird way to stop off at the dry-cleaners, but I had a nice view of the city at least.

I stopped at a gas station to pick up some Gatorade. I hoped that would be an okay substitute for the missing Gu. Did you know that you can buy boiled peanuts at RaceTrac? Neither did I. I never had boiled peanuts until I moved to Georgia, but I actually really like them.

Moving on.

The trail was pretty crowded, but not horribly so and I parked my car and was on my way. The good thing about this trail for me (it’s a paved trail, by the way) is that I’ve run it so many times that I can break it up into sections. For example, I know that there’s a bridge at .75 miles, another right after 2, etc. I find that looking forward to my little checkpoints or whatever you’d call them is a good way to break up the monotony. Because even though this trail is very pretty, it’s also pretty boring.

It’s boring, but it’s flat. The race I’m training for is not flat so I do like to train on hills sometimes, however, doing a nice, flat run is a good confidence booster because my times are faster than normal.

I ran at a relaxed pace although towards the end I sort of speeded up because I wanted to be finished. I felt really great until the last mile and then my hips felt really sore. That always happens to me; the last mile is super hard no matter what the distance. Here are my mile splits:

I decided to end my alcohol-free month a couple of days early. I really wanted a glass of wine (okay fine, two glasses) with dinner last night. Aside from the two glasses of wine that I had two weeks ago, this was the first time that I’d drank in about a month. Four drinks in a month doesn’t sound like such a little amount, but really it is. There were two specific times when it felt really weird not to drink – one when we went out for a friend’s birthday to a wine bar and then to a pool hall and the other was when we made sushi at a friend’s house. Basically, when Jason and I were alone, it wasn’t weird not to drink because the other person wasn’t either, but when we were with friends that did drink, it did feel odd.

When I say the high cost of drinking, I’m not talking about cost as in risk; I’m talking about the actual cost. I didn’t really think about it before, but alcohol can be really expensive. The primary thing that I noticed about not drinking wasn’t that I was losing weight (I maybe lost a pound) or that I felt better (although I did, but I typically don’t drink so much that I get a hangover), it was that when we went out to dinner, the bills ended up being so cheap!

While I was unemployed, we got into the habit of almost solely going to restaurants that had a Scoutmob deal available. It was a fun way to try new places and it was cheaper. The way that Scoutmob works, if you are unfamiliar, is that you get 50% off your total bill up to a certain amount. Restaurants are usually anywhere from $10-$25 depending on how pricey the restaurant is.

Last night, we decided to go to Urban Pl8, also on Scoutmob. I’d been there once, probably a year or so ago, and Jason had never. We got stuck in some horrible traffic on the way there and didn’t get there until 8:45. The restaurant closed at 9:30, but it was still packed, so we went in anyway. I always feel sort of bad going to a place right before it closes, but why are they only opened until 9:30 on a Friday night?

Urban Pl8 is really off the beaten path. It’s in a trendy area, but way down this random street and you’d never know it was there if you didn’t know about it. The interior is small and industrial looking.

There was a little bit of a wait, so we started out at the bar, where I ordered the aforementioned glass of wine.

For my entree, I had the veggie burger. It was on the smaller side, although you can’t really tell that in the picture, but it was good.

I don’t usually post pictures of Jason’s food, but he declared his cheeseburger one of the top five that he’s had in Atlanta which is a major compliment as he likes to fashion himself as a cheeseburger aficionado.

Our bill ended up being $37 after the Scoutmob discount which is pretty decent for a nice place. However, you know what our bill would have been if we hadn’t been drinking (I had two glasses of wine and Jason had three beers)? $8. Yes, $8. Both of our entrees were on the less expensive side at $8 each so 50% of that would have been $8. So we spent nearly $30 extra dollars on alcohol. Part of the issue is that I get wine which is anywhere from $6-$9 a glass (I usually don’t get glasses that are more expensive) and while I only have two, sometimes three, that adds up!

If we didn’t drink when we went out, or at least drastically cut down, think of all the money that we would save! And with that saved money, we can buy expensive ice cream instead!